The prior art is replete with board games and educational puzzles that employ a plurality of blocks that can be arranged to produce a variety of patterns, as can be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,759,522; 4,177,305; 4,177,993; and 4,076,253.
While the prior art devices all fulfill their intended roles and functions in a more or less satisfactory manner, they have been deficient in several regards; all of which can be directly attributable to their collective failure to appreciate the fact, that most children become bored with puzzles and other educational toys that do not maintain their interest.
A child has a very short attention span, and one of the easiest ways to lose that attention is to provide the child with a task that offers no challenge or is repetitive in nature.
As was evidenced by RUBIKS CUBE.TM., a puzzle that offered numerous solutions among a multitude of variations, not only proved commercially successful, but also held childrens' attention far beyond the time span normally devoted to puzzles of this type.
The present invention, while based on different principles than the so called "cube" type puzzles, incorporates variations of those principles into a totally unique puzzle that also serves as an educational tool.